Notre Dame returns home today for its first home game of the 2024 season, fresh off a 23-13 road win over Texas A&M a week ago. The Irish face MAC foe Northern Illinois for the first time as clear favorites. Their biggest opponent of the day, however, may be themselves as they look to avoid an emotional letdown.

What worries me this week

Emotional disappointment

A home game against a MAC opponent a week after a big emotional road win is usually a recipe for emotional disappointment. Hopefully the first home game of the year gives the Irish enough momentum to avoid total disappointment, but it’s reasonable to assume the Irish will start a little slow. Marcus Freeman showed last week that he knows how to push the right buttons on this team, albeit with the emotion he showed in the tunnel last week before the Irish took the field. So expect Freeman to try to set the tone early again.

Explosive games from Northern Illinois

Northern Illinois just can’t keep up with Notre Dame all game long if they’re forced to run long, sustained offenses all game long, but they have playmakers who can make things exciting with explosive plays. Notre Dame didn’t allow a single explosive play from Texas A&M last weekend, but Northern Illinois has enough firepower to get some this week if the Irish defense messes up just a little bit. The only way for the Huskies to win the game is to make some big plays, so it wouldn’t be surprising if the Irish played a little risk-averse early to prevent that.

What doesn’t worry me this week

Notre Dame’s vertical passing game

Notre Dame did what it needed to do to beat Texas A&M a week ago. That meant very little vertical passing, as the Aggies have an elite pass rush and the Irish have a green offensive line. That should change today. Don’t expect Notre Dame to simply blow the ball up on every down, but they will make some shooting plays this weekend. They need to start developing that part of the offense if they are serious about making the playoffs and if they want to save recruiting wide receivers for the class of 2025.

The passing game doesn’t have to be perfect today, but it does need to take a step forward today because the Irish will need it later this season – especially if they make the playoffs.

Riley Leonard has to run so much

In addition to more vertical passes, I expect Riley Leonard to run the ball a lot less today. If he has more attempts than he did a week ago, something went very wrong today. Notre Dame needs to use Leonard’s leg wisely this season given his injury history, and this is the type of game where they should keep Leonard’s designed runs to a minimum. If an RPO offers something for him, take advantage of it. Otherwise, let the dynamic duo of Jadarian Price and Jeremiyah Love do their thing and get the passing game going.

Notre Dame’s young offensive line

If the Irish OL can survive a trip to Kyle Field and the Aggie defensive line, I’m not worried today. But that doesn’t mean it will be perfect. There will still be some moments where it looks like an offensive line that had only six career starts before last weekend, but overall the offensive line will be more than good against Northern Illinois.

Players in focus

Kris Mitchell – Jordan Faison beat out Mitchell for the starting field receiver position in camp, but is out for the next week or two. That gives Mitchell a huge opportunity that I think he’ll capitalize on with a big game today.

Beaux-Collins -He definitely looked like a WR1 last week. Will that be the case every week or was it just a good game for the Clemson transfer? We’ll get an indication of that today.

Mitch Evans – His “pitch count” increased today, and it would be shocking if he didn’t get a target or two. Like the passing game overall, Notre Dame needs him to be 100% later this season, so hopefully he’s a little more involved today.

Boubacar Traore – I just feel like today is the day that a lot of Notre Dame fans see how good he can be.

Kyngstonn Villiamu-Asa – KVA looked anything but a freshman last week. For the first time in a long time, Notre Dame has a strong, talented and fast linebacker corps. It will be interesting to see how the snaps are split between KVA and Drayk Bowen, who was also great last week.

Anthony Knapp -He played about as well as anyone could hope for last week against a future first-round draft pick. It will be interesting to see how he responds.

Forecast time

Look for Notre Dame to start a little sluggish. I wouldn’t be surprised if Northern Illinois scores a touchdown early and the Irish offense starts slow. In the end, though, Notre Dame will look like the top-5 team it is and win comfortably.

Notre Dame 41, Northern Illinois 13